Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Looking to learn about separates

I want to find out more about the preamp/amp/integrated stuff. Where are some good sites to find out what each does, pros, cons, what to look for etc.

My usual suspects of sites didn't turn up much.

Try Audioholics. Read the reviews of different equipment and check their rating system.

There isn't much to pro/con.

With the amp, find something with a decent brand name and as heavy as your budget can afford. With a preamp, find something with a nice remote, many outputs, etc. I suggest starting with NAD - spearitsound.com has some nice refurbs on their latest preamps and amps. The Audiosoruce Amp 300, for its price, is very heavy and puts out a nice amount of power also.

Rotel stuff looks(and runs) awesome but the price is a bit.. high. $700 MSRP for 130x2 is rape, and the fact that they don't sell online and the closest dealer to me is over 30 miles away is disappointing.

Same for Bryston/other uberexpensive stuff. Bryston does have the best warranty, however - you could buy three NADs of similar wattage to one Bryston, which would make the warranty irrevalant. You could buy three and when one breaks, take a new one out of the closet.

What do you mean by "there isn't much to pro/con?" My knowledge is limited enough that I don't know the pluses and minuses of separates vs. AV receivers or pre&amp vs. integrated. At all

So I was looking for kind of a beginner's explanation of that. At audioholics I can read some reviews and kind of grasp what different pieces do, but not sure I have the big picture.

The NAD pointer's a good one. We even do have a Rotel dealer right in our small city in Montana -ha

But, right, they probably are too $$$

You can spend hours reading al this stuff. tech advice
But the answers are there.

I meant that there is little to make one better than the other, when you're looking at seperates of a certain price point from certain brands so long as they have low distortion and lots of power. With Axioms power isn't much of a concern unless you are half deaf, so most seperates will do the job just fine.

You what you'll learn? That this dang hobby can get really expensive really fast. And, you can't seem to find enough space for all the gear you want.

I'm at the point that I'm looking for a tube amp so I can use my Pio 45TX as the pre. All this and I don't even have space for it. Let alone a safe space for a hot tube amp w/ toddlers in the house...

The real problem, and it hasn't changed much in about 40 years, is who is telling the truth in their specifications and who is blowing smoke????

I have been doing a lot of research lately, and I am finding it very difficult to make any firm decisions. There sure is a lot of BS out there.

Look at sites that measure the equipment. hometheaterhifi.com measures some not all. I only look for measurements from these sites since when people give certain audible qualities outside of "not distorted and powerful" or "distorted and weak" to a seperate amp in the $500+ class, they're most probably BSing, or full of placeabo.

Stereophile also measures quite a bit of equipment. I try to skip to the measurements faster than I can read the review. Did anyone ever notice that when a site like stereotimes or stereophile reviews something like a cable or a power amp where basically any halfway decent thing will do(especially when all they review is in the $500-$50,000) category, they go on and on with odd anecdotes to fill up review space?

Companies like NAD, Rotel, the new Audiosource models, Bryston, Harman Kardon, etc, aren't BSIng you. The measurements, their reputation, and the physical weight of their products is point enough that they're not BSing you. In fact, when it comes to seperates, it's rare to find a company BS you at all. Companies that make seperates outside of mass market brands usually rate all of their products conservatively. Honestly, if surround sound receivers were removed from the market completely it'd be pretty hard to find BSers in the amplification market nowadays. It's just that since multichannel receivers are so common(and their abilities are so commonly BSed), that it seems like everyone else is dishonest.

Where in Montana? I used to live in Sealy Lake and Wolf Creek.

Integrated amps are just an amp with inputs/outputs, and tone controls. An amp doesn’t do a dam thing but amplify a signal and pass it onto the speakers. The pre-amp does the thinking, - receives, manipulates and distributes the signal to the amp.

Separates are considered the primavera of audio components because each piece of independent electronic gear is a stand alone unit with a lot of real estate to route wires and mount electronic gizmos that make it work, where receivers lump everything into one box. The concept behind separating equipment is more room to lay out the internal components. Folks who buy separates are usually not on as tight a budget as folks looking at receivers. Manufactures knowing this, can then have more latitude to put higher grade components into the finished product, and take more time getting them through the plant. The QC is generally tighter. That’s about as simple as it gets……